OMOTE Face Hackers At Work Video

Tired of looking at your regular old face when video conferencing? OMOTE, a Japanese artist's collective, can work miracles in real time video.

(OMOTE Real Time Face Projection)

So how does it work? To oversimplify it: an array of cameras tracks the dots on their faces, akin to the way Hollywood motion capture systems work. They then take some truly amazing texture/animation work and digitally morph it around a model of each guy’s face — essentially making a mask of light — and project it onto their skin in real time.

Bruce Sterling's video-manicuring program from his 1985 novel Schismatrix should come to mind for science fiction fans:

Lindsay had a brief glimpse of the man's true appearance - white hair in spiky disarray, red-rimmed eyes - before a video-manicuring program came on line. The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.
(Read more about Sterling's video-manicuring program)